Don (river)

{{Infobox river

| name = Don

| native_name = {{native name|ru|Дон}}

| image = Don (Voronezh Oblast).jpg

| image_size =

| image_caption = The Don in Voronezh Oblast.

| map = Donrivermap.png

| map_size =

| map_caption = Catchment of the Don

| pushpin_map =

| pushpin_map_size =

| pushpin_map_caption =

| mapframe = yes

| mapframe-zoom = 4

| subdivision_type1 = Country

| subdivision_name1 = {{Flag|Russia}}

| subdivision_type2 =

| subdivision_name2 =

| subdivision_type3 = Region

| subdivision_name3 =

{{Flag|Tula Oblast}},

{{Flag|Ryazan Oblast}},

{{Flag|Lipetsk Oblast}},

{{Flag|Voronezh Oblast}},

{{Flag|Volgograd Oblast}},

| subdivision_type4 =

| subdivision_name4 =

| subdivision_type5 = Cities

| subdivision_name5 = Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don

| length = {{cvt|1,870|km|mi|abbr=on}}

| width_min =

| width_avg =

| width_max =

| depth_min =

| depth_avg =

| depth_max =

| discharge1_location= Don Delta

| discharge1_min =

| discharge1_avg =(Period: 1971–2000){{cvt|987.8|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}}{{cite web|url=https://www.riversnetwork.org/V1/index.php/component/content/?view=article&id=65&catid=227&Itemid=179|title=Don}}

| discharge1_max =

| discharge2_location=Rostov-on-Don

| discharge2_avg=(Period: 1971–2000){{cvt|955.2|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}}{{cite web|url=https://www.riversnetwork.org/V1/index.php/component/content/?view=article&id=65&catid=227&Itemid=179|title=Don}}

| discharge3_location=Voronezh

| discharge3_avg=(Period: 1971–2000){{cvt|138.6|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}}{{cite web|url=https://www.riversnetwork.org/V1/index.php/component/content/?view=article&id=65&catid=227&Itemid=179|title=Don}}

| source1 =

| source1_location = Novomoskovsk, Tula Oblast

| source1_coordinates= {{coord|54|00|43|N|38|16|41|E|display=inline}}

| source1_elevation = {{cvt|238|m|abbr=on}}

| mouth = Sea of Azov

| mouth_location = Kagal'nik, Rostov Oblast

| mouth_coordinates = {{coord|47|05|11|N|39|14|19|E|display=inline,title}}

| mouth_elevation = {{cvt|0|m|abbr=on}}

| progression = Sea of Azov

| river_system = Don River

| basin_size={{cvt|443,167.7|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}{{cite web|url=https://www.riversnetwork.org/V1/index.php/component/content/?view=article&id=65&catid=227&Itemid=179|title=Don}}

| tributaries_left =Voronezh, Bityug, Khopyor, Medveditsa, Ilovlya, Sal, Manych

| tributaries_right = Krasivaya Mecha, Bystraya Sosna, Tikhaya Sosna, Chyornaya Kalitva, Chir, Seversky Donets

| custom_label =

| custom_data =

}}

The Don ({{langx|ru|Дон|don}}) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.

Its basin is between the Dnieper basin to the west, the lower Volga basin immediately to the east, and the Oka basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads.{{sfn|Basilevsky|2016}}

The Don rises in the town of Novomoskovsk {{convert|60|km|mi}} southeast of Tula (in turn {{convert|193|km}} south of Moscow), and flows 1,870 kilometres to the Sea of Azov. The river's upper half meanders subtly south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, including Voronezh, making its final stretch, an estuary, run west south-west. The main city on the river is Rostov-on-Don. Its main tributary is the Seversky Donets, centred on the mid-eastern end of Ukraine, thus the other country in the overall basin. To the east of a series of three great ship locks and associated ponds is the {{convert|101|km|adj=on}} Volga–Don Canal.

History

The name Don could stem from the Avestan word dānu- ("river, stream").{{sfn|Vasmer|1950|ps=none|loc=p.362: "Die Quelle ist avest. dānu- f. Fluß, Strom"}} According to the Kurgan hypothesis, the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans around 4,000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.{{sfn|Piazza|Cavalli-Sforza|2006}} The east Slavic tribe of the Antes inhabited the Don and other areas of Southern and Central Russia.{{sfn|Yilmaz|2015|loc=p. 228}}{{sfn|Hamilton|1983|ps=none|loc=p. 2: "During the eighth and ninth centuries the Khazar state reached its greatest extent and power, and the Antes and Slavs of the lower Don and Azov region, the old As or Rus tribes, participated in the first of the empires to be established on Russian soil."}} The area around the Don was influenced by the Byzantine Empire because the river was important for traders from Byzantium.{{sfn|Tellier|2009|ps=none|loc=p. 251: "In 1261, the Genoese concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea and succeeded to establish trading posts at two terminals of the Silk Road on the Black Sea: Kaffa, in Crimea, and Tana, on the Don River, which runs towards the Black Sea."}}

In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers.{{sfn|Davies|1996|loc= p.8}}{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 183: "Asia is adjacent to Europe, bordering thereon along the Tanaïs River."}}{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 185: "...Tanaïs River, which I have taken as the boundary between Europe and Asia."}} In the Book of Jubilees, it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of the sons of Noah, that of Japheth to the north and that of Shem to the south.{{sfn|Jubilees}}{{efn|Later works, as the 7th-century T and O map, also depicts the Don as the border between Europe and Asia|group=note}} During the times of the old Scythians it was known in Greek as the Tanaïs ({{lang|el|Τάναϊς}}) and has been a major trading route ever since. Tanais appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in the Maeotian marshes.{{efn|e.g. Strabo, Geographica{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 191: "On the river and the lake is an inhabited city bearing the same name, Tanaïs."}}|group=note}} Greeks also called the river Iazartes ({{lang|el|Ἰαζάρτης}}).{{sfn|Suda}}

Pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais as Silys.{{sfn|Rackham|1952|loc=section 20}}

According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed to Plutarch, the Don was home to the legendary Amazons of Greek mythology.{{sfn|Goodwin|1874|loc=chapter 14}}

The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of the Black Death in the mid-14th century.{{sfn|Benedictow|2005}}

While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before the gradual conquest of the area by the Tsardom of Russia in the 16th century.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The Don Cossacks, who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river.{{sfn|Chenchevyk|2013}}

The fort of Donkov was founded by the princes of Ryazan in the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about {{convert|34|km}} from the modern town of Dankov, until 1568, when it was destroyed by the Crimean Tatars, but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown as Donko in Mercator's Atlas (1596).{{sfn|Mercator|1595}}

Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing as Donkagorod in Joan Blaeu's map of 1645.{{sfn|Massa|1645}}

Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeled Resanskoy ozera by Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing a waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeled Ioanis Lago, by Mercator Odoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro) to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator shows Mtsensk (Msczene) as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with the Zusha (Schat) and Upa (Uppa) centered on a settlement Odoium, reported

as Odoium lacum (Juanow ozero){{sfn|Ostromęcka-Frączak|1976|loc=p. 108}} in the map made by Baron Augustin von Mayerberg, leader of an embassy to the Tsardom of Russia in 1661.

In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the work And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, a Nobel-prize winning writer from the stanitsa of Veshenskaya.{{sfn|Litus|2003}}

Dams and canals

At its easternmost point, the Don comes within {{convert|100|km}} of the Volga. The Volga–Don Canal, 101 kilometres (65 mi), connects the two. It is a broad, deep waterway capable of transporting oil tanker size vessels. It is one of two which enables ships to depart the Caspian Sea, the other, a series, connected to the Baltic Sea. The level of the Don where connected is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam, forming the Tsimlyansk Reservoir.

File:Storozhevoe-Don-Day-Panorama-20090524.jpg

For the next {{convert|130|km|mi}} below the Tsimlyansk Dam, the sufficient depth of the Don is maintained by the sequence of three dam-and-ship-lock complexes: the Nikolayevsky Ship Lock ({{lang|ru|Николаевский гидроузел}}), Konstantinovsk Ship Lock ({{lang|ru|Константиновский гидроузел}}), and the best known of the three, the Kochetovsky Ship Lock ({{lang|ru|Кочетовский гидроузел}}). The Kochetovsky Lock, built in 1914–19 and doubled in 2004–08, is {{convert|7.5|km|mi}} downstream of the discharge of the Seversky Donets and {{convert|131|km|mi}} upstream of Rostov-on-Don. It is at {{coord|47|34|07|N|40|51|10|E}}. This facility, with its dam, maintains a navigable head of water locally and into the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don; below it, deep-draught navigation is maintained by dredging.{{sfn|Waterway Administration|2012}}

In order to improve shipping conditions in the lower reaches of the Don, the waterway authorities support plans for one or two more low dams with locks. These will be in Bagayevsky District and possibly Aksaysky District.{{sfn|Sea News|2013}}

Tributaries

File:Исток реки Дон.jpg, Tula Oblast]]

Main tributaries from source to mouth:

Nepryadva
Krasivaya Mecha
Bystraya Sosna
Veduga
Voronezh
Tikhaya Sosna
Bityug
Osered
Chyornaya Kalitva
Khopyor – {{convert|1010|km|mi}}
Medveditsa
Ilovlya
Chir
Seversky Donets – {{convert|1053|km|mi}}
Aidar – {{convert|264|km|mi}}
Sal
Manych
Aksay
Temernik

Footnotes

=Explanatory=

=Citations=

References

{{cite book |last=Basilevsky |first=Alexander |title=Early Ukraine: A Military and Social History to the Mid-19th Century |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-9714-0 |oclc=898167561 |date=2016-03-23}}

{{cite book |last=Vasmer |first=Max |title=Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch |trans-title=Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language |date=1950 |publisher=Carl Winter |lang=de |url=https://archive.org/details/Vasm0561 |location=Heidelberg}}

{{cite journal |last1=Piazza |first1=Alberto |last2=Cavalli-Sforza |first2=Luigi |editor-last1=Cangelosi |editor-first1=Angelo |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Andrew D. M. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Kenny |title=Diffusion of Genes and Languages in Human Evolution |date=2006 |journal=The Evolution of Language |location=New Jersey, London, Singapore |pages=255-266 |url=https://langev.com/pdf/piazza06evolang.pdf |doi=10.1142/9789812774262_0033}}

{{cite book |last=Yilmaz |first=Harun |title=National Identities in Soviet Historiography: The Rise of Nations under Stalin |date=2015-02-20 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnbABgAAQBAJ |isbn=9781317596639}}

{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=George Heard |title=The Art and Architecture of Russia |date=1983 |publisher=Yale University Press |edition=3 |location=New Heaven, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6Fwr_e56d4C |isbn=0300053274}}

{{cite book |last=Tellier |first=Luc-Normand |title=Urban world history : An Economic and Geographical Perspective |date=2009 |publisher=Presses de l'Université du Québec |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXuCjDbxC1YC |location=Québec | oclc=444730453 |isbn=9782760522091}}

{{cite book |last=Davies |first=Norman |title=Europe: A History |title-link=Europe: A History |author-link=Norman Davies |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, New York |isbn=0198201710}}

{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Horace Leonard |title=The Geography of Strabo |date=1924 |volume=5 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://archive.org/embed/Strabo08Geography17AndIndex |location=London}}

{{cite web |translator-last=Charles |translator-first=R. H. |title=The Book of Jubilees |publication-date=1917 |publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge |url=https://sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/jub22.htm#fn_293 |location=London |ref={{SfnRef|Jubilees}}}}

{{cite web |title=iota, 5 |website=Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography |url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/iota/5 |ref={{SfnRef|Suda}}}}

{{cite book |translator-last=Rackham |translator-first=H. |title=Pliny, Natural History |publication-date=1952 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn6a.html#20 |volume=IX |location=Cambridge, MA |ref={{SfnRef|Rackham|1952}}}}

{{cite book |author=Pseudo-Plutarch |title=De Fluviis |editor-last=Goodwin |editor-first=William W. |publication-date=1874 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0400%3Achapter%3D14 |publisher=Press Of John Wilson and son |ref={{SfnRef|Goodwin|1874}}}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.historytoday.com/ole-j-benedictow/black-death-greatest-catastrophe-ever |last=Benedictow |first=Ole J. |title=The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever |date=2005 |website=www.historytoday.com}}

{{cite web |last=Chenchevyk |first=Iryna |date=2013-09-15 |title=Ukrains'ke korinnia' dons'kyh kozakiv |trans-title=Ukrainian Roots of the Don Cossacks |script-title=uk:Українське коріння донських козаків |url=http://kuban.in.ua/index.php/Історія/українське-коріння-донських-козаків.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131130223035/http://kuban.in.ua/index.php/%D0%86%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%96%D1%8F/%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B5-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B2.html |archive-date=2013-11-30 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Ukrainian Kuban |language=Ukrainian }}

{{cite book |last=Mercator |first=Gerardus |author-link=Gerardus Mercator |title=Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mvndi et fabricati figvra |trans-title=Atlas or Cosmographical Meditations upon the Creation of the Universe, and the Universe as Created |chapter=Taurica Chresonesus, Nostra aetate Przecopsca et Gazara dicitur |chapter-url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2003rosen0730/?sp=106 |date=1595 |location=Duisburg |via=Wikimedia Commons}}

{{cite book |last=Massa |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Massa |title=Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum |trans-title=Theater of the World, or a New Atlas of Maps and Representations of All Regions |editor-last1=Blaeu |editor-first1=Willem |editor-last2=Blaeu |editor-first2=Joan |chapter=Russiæ, vulgo Moscovia, pars australis |date=1645 |via=Wikimedia Commons}}

{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Ostromęcka-Frączak |first=Bożena |date=1976 |title=Rozwój funkcji czasownikowych prefiksów wy- i iz- w języku rosyjskim w porównaniu z wy- w języku polskim |trans-title=Development of the Verb Functions of the Prefixes wy- and iz- in Russian Compared to wy- in Polish |series=Studia językoznawcze: streszczenia prac doktorskich |editor-last=Siatkowski |editor-first=Janusz |publisher=Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolinśkich |lang=pl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjRiAAAAMAAJ |location=Wrocław |pages=91-128}}

{{cite book |last=Litus |first=Ludmilla L. |editor-last=Rydel |editor-first=Christine |title=Russian Prose Writers Between the World Wars |chapter=Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (11 May 1905 – 21 February 1984) |series=Dictionary of Literary Biography |volume=272 |pages=383-408 |publisher=Gale Group |date=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFU-vgAACAAJ |location=Detroit |isbn=0787660167}}

{{cite web |title=Navigacionno-gidrograficheskiy ocherk |trans-title=Navigational and Hydrographic Overview |script-title=ru: Навигационно-гидрографический очерк |url=http://www.adgbu.ru/info/borders.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629003544/http://www.adgbu.ru/info/borders.html |archive-date=2012-06-29 |url-status=dead |website=Waterway Administration of the Azov and Don Basin |lang=ru |ref={{SfnRef|Waterway Administration|2012}}}}

{{cite journal |title=Azovo-Donskoy basseyn: Bagaevsky gidrouzel - reshenie dlya Nizhnego Dona |trans-title=The Azov Sea – Don Basin: The Construction of the Bagayevsly Dam is the Solution for the Lower Don |script-title=ru:Азово-Донской бассейн: Багаевский гидроузел – решение для Нижнего Дона |date=2013 |lang=ru |journal=Sea News |issue=8 |url=http://www.morvesti.ru/analitics/detail.php?ID=26981 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415082629/http://www.morvesti.ru/analitics/detail.php?ID=26981 |archive-date=2016-04-15 |ref={{SfnRef|Sea News|2013}}}}

External links

{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Don (Russia) | volume= 8 |last1= Kropotkin |first1= Peter Alexeivitch |author1-link= Peter Kropotkin| last2= Bealby |first2= John Thomas| pages = 405–406 |short= 1}}

Category:Book of Jubilees

Category:Geography of Southern Russia

Category:Rivers of Lipetsk Oblast

Category:Rivers of Rostov Oblast

Category:Rivers of Tula Oblast

Category:Rivers of Volgograd Oblast

Category:Rivers of Voronezh Oblast